Anti-Trust

Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled. … A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will not boot a generic copy of Linux.

[Critics] analogize Google’s conduct today to that of Microsoft’s during the 1990s. That sounds appealing but it could not be more wrong…. Let’s remember the past. (I should, I was an FTC staff attorney who worked on the FTC Microsoft investigation in the early 1990s). … In its 1998 case the DOJ condemned a wide variety of exclusionary conduct, carried out (in Microsoft’s words) to “cut off the air supply” of its rivals. In particular Microsoft tied its browser to its operating system to safeguard its operating system monopoly and extend it to the web. Microsoft compelled customers to purchase products they did not want and created obstacles for rival browsers to work effectively.

So when do Florian Mueller and the TurboHercules trolls come by and tell me they are sorry they were wrong and sincerely apologize to me for filling the Internet and Groklaw comments with attacks on me because I said nothing ought to come of the complaints against IBM? Should I hold my breath for an apology? No. But it turns out the EU Commission confirms my position. It all came to nothing…. Well. Nothing but FUD.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

Presumably the BSA and other groups focused on “promoting responsible business practices including respect for intellectual property” have lost all of their credibility or the company needs a new fake independent FUD and threat source.

The criminal enterprise known as Microsoft finds itself embarrassingly exposed in the courtroom, for the IRS belatedly (decades too late) targets the company in an effort to tackle massive tax evasions

A look at some of last week's patent news, with imperative responses that criticise corporate exploitation of patents for protectionism (excluding and/or driving away the competition using legal threats)

Vista 10 to bring new ways for spies (and other crackers) to remotely access people's computers and remotely modify the binary files on them (via Windows Update, which for most people cannot be disabled)